Racist and discriminatory actions, speech, and tweets by Donald Trump.
Despite proclaiming himself “the least racist person in the world,” Donald Trump’s record suggests otherwise – from advocating for the execution of five black teenagers in 1989 (for crimes they were wrongly accused) to his repeal of DACA protections for former child immigrants and his frequent use of racist dog-whistles.
≡ July 29, 2020
Told suburban voters they ‘will no longer be bothered’ by low-income neighbors.
» Trumps comments came after his administration revoked an Obama-era housing rule designed to diversify suburban communities.
I am happy to inform all of the people living their Suburban Lifestyle Dream that you will no longer be bothered or financially hurt by having low income housing built in your neighborhood…
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 29, 2020
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≡ July 29, 2020
Stopped accepting new DACA applicants and declared intent to seek an end to the program altogether.
» Following a federal court ruling that Trump could not eliminate DACA entirely, his administration instead ceased accepting new applicants, halved the required renewal period, and declared they were still seeking alternative ways to eliminate the program.
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≡ June 28, 2020
Retweeted video of a supporter yelling ‘white power’.
» Trump claimed not have heard the supporter in the video yell racist slogan, and although he deleted the tweet hours after posting it, Trump at no point criticized the use of the phrase by the supporter.
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≡ July 6, 2020
Demanded apology from NASCAR’s only black driver for an incident he played no hand in.
» The incident, which involved the discovery a rope fashioned into a noose in a garage of Bubba Wallace, NASCAR’s only black driver, was not a hoax (and fortunately was not a hate crime either).
Has @BubbaWallace apologized to all of those great NASCAR drivers & officials who came to his aid, stood by his side, & were willing to sacrifice everything for him, only to find out that the whole thing was just another HOAX? That & Flag decision has caused lowest ratings EVER!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 6, 2020
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≡ June 22, 2020
Retweeted series of videos showing black men assaulting white people.
» Apparently arguing that the random assault of several white people by black individuals was the equivalent police brutality and systemic racial injustices stretching back before even the nations founding… Donald Trump complained, “Where are the protesters?” regarding the assaults – assaults which were addressed by local authorities.
» Trump followed with several other equally outrageous tweets with literally no conceivable purpose except to fan racial tensions and sow divisions – “So terrible!”
Looks what’s going on here. Where are the protesters? Was this man arrested? https://t.co/2E1UbU5vNN
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 23, 2020
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≡ June 12, 2019
Referred to the outcome of the American Civil War for the black community as “questionable”.
» Claiming again to have done more for the black community than any other president, while simultaneously questioning the results of the American Civil War:
“So I think I’ve done more for the black community than any other president,” Trump said. “And let’s take a pass on Abraham Lincoln because he did good, although it’s always questionable, you know, in other words the end result.”
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≡ May 28, 2019
“When the looting starts, the shooting starts. Thank you!”
» A callback to a phrase coined by a Miami police chief during the 1967 race riots, rounded out of course with a classically Trumpian ‘Thank you!’.
I can’t stand back & watch this happen to a great American City, Minneapolis. A total lack of leadership. Either the very weak Radical Left Mayor, Jacob Frey, get his act together and bring the City under control, or I will send in the National Guard & get the job done right…..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 29, 2020
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≡ 2020
Withheld $8.2B in disaster relief for Puerto Rico for a month following the islands devastation by Hurricane Maria.
» At the same time, Trump sent 23x the relief resources per capital to victims on the mainland United States, such as Texas and Louisiana.
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≡ Sept. 2019
Allowed $1.8B in emergency aid for Puerto Rico to be scammed by administration officials barely a week after tweeting that Puerto Rico was corrupt:
“Puerto Rico is one of the most corrupt places on earth… Congress approved Billions of Dollars last time, more than anyplace else has ever gotten, and it is sent to Crooked Pols… And by the way, I’m the best thing that’s ever happened to Puerto Rico!” —President Donald J. Trump on Twitter (8.29.19).
» Shortly after, a senior government official and a contractor overseeing reconstruction of the islands electrical grid were arrested for steering $1.1B worth of contracts to associated parties.
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≡ Aug. 20, 2019
Claimed Jewish voters who support Democrats are either ignorant or greatly ‘disloyal’.
“I think any Jewish people that vote for a Democrat, I think it shows either a total lack of knowledge or great disloyalty.”
» Doubling down days later, Trump stated even more arrogantly:
“In my opinion, you vote for a Democrat, you’re being very disloyal to Jewish people, and you’re being very disloyal to Israel, and only weak people would say anything other than that.”
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≡ Aug. 2019
Stripped the automatic citizenship rights of some children born overseas to U.S. service members and government employees.
» No longer will U.S. military hospitals or diplomatic facilities abroad be considered U.S. soil (and thus, being born on it previously granted one automatic U.S. citizenship).
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≡ July 17, 2019
Misrepresented statements made by Muslim U.S. Rep. Illhan Omar, inciting a chant of “send her back”.
» Trump falsely claimed that Rep. Omar has “a history of launching vicious, anti-Semitic screeds” prior to the chant breaking out.
» After backlash from both parties, Trump claimed (despite video evidence to the contrary) that he was “not happy” about it and had “started speaking very quickly” to try to silence it.
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≡ July 14, 2019
Told four Democrat Congresswomen of color to go back to their ‘corrupt’ and ‘crime infested’ countries.
» An especially asinine assertion considering three of the congresswomen in question were born in the United States.
….and viciously telling the people of the United States, the greatest and most powerful Nation on earth, how our government is to be run. Why don’t they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came. Then come back and show us how….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 14, 2019
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≡ May 2019
Delayed the production of $20 bills featuring black abolitionist icon and activist, Harriet Tubman.
» Allegedly suggested putting Tubman on the $2 bill instead, and had considered canceling it altogether, prompting Trumps treasury secretary, Steve Mnuchin, to delay the redesign until 2028.
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≡ Oct. 31, 2018
Tweeted racist political ad about an undocumented immigrant who murdered two police officer, accused Democrats of letting him in the country.
» In actuality, the murderer was originally released from custody by none other former sheriff Joe Arapaio, before later re-entering the country during George W. Bush’s presidency.
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≡ Aug. 22, 2018
Used the murder of Mollie Tibbet’s as an anti-immigration prop, despite the wishes of her parents.
» At a campaign rally, Trump declared: “A person came in from Mexico illegally and killed he. We need the wall…”
» Tibbet’s father released a statement asking for privacy and referring to Trump as “heartless” and “despicable” for using his daughters death to discriminate against Hispanics, writing that he “encourage[s] the debate on immigration; there is great merit in its reasonable outcome, but do not appropriate Mollie’s soul in advancing views she believed were profoundly racist.”
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≡ July 2018
Instituted a policy to discriminate against Lawful Permanent Residents serving in the military.
» Already subject to enhanced scrutiny in their required background investigations – the Trump administration put forth a policy requiring additional, ambiguously defined criteria be met for an LPR to qualify for service.
» The abrupt change in policy resulted in the immediate discharge of dozens of immigrant enlistees, many of whom did not receive the crucial ‘honorably discharged’ distinction that would afford them a degree of protection from deportation.
≡ Apr. 2018
Referred to African countries as “shithole” countries.
» When asked if reports that he had described some African countries as “shithole” countries, Trump did not deny it, but rather went on to describe some African countries as “very tough places to live in”.
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≡ 2018
Ended funding for programs that counter violent extremism.
» Ended support for such programs as “Life After Hate”, a program that helps people leave Neo-Nazi and other white supremacist groups.
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≡ Nov. 29, 2017
Retweeted misleading videos from a British ultra-nationalist group and which alleged to show Muslim migrants committing acts of violence.
» One of the videos of alleged Muslim migrant violence is actually a video of a Dutch-born boy assaulting another Dutch boy, neither of whom is a migrant or Muslim.
» In another video simply labeled ‘Muslim’, a man is shown smashing a statue of Virgin Mary – the man was in fact an extremist cleric of a militant group in Syria – not of a Muslim migrant.
» A third video, described as an “Islamist mob pushed teenage boy off roof and beats him to death!” – is actually footage from Egypt in 2013 between rival political groups – again, no Muslim-migrant violence is depicted.
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≡ Nov. 20, 2017
Attempting to strip over 300,000 immigrants of their protected status, granted to them after fleeing their nations due to war, earthquakes, or other conditions that required they flee.
» Lawsuits have blocked the administrations attempts to strip their TPS (Temporary Protected Status) until at least 2021.
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≡ Oct. 2017
While 90% of Puerto Rico still out of power and nearly half lacking clean water following the islands devastation by Hurricane Maria, Trump declared:
…We cannot keep FEMA, the Military & the First Responders, who have been amazing (under the most difficult circumstances) in P.R. forever!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 12, 2017
» Trump went on to claim that the island was a disaster before the hurricane and therefore shouldn’t be entitled to so much federal assistance – despite being U.S. citizens on U.S. soil.
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≡ Sept. 5, 2017
Rescinded Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).
» Thereby stripped protections for ‘Dreamers’ – a generation of undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children.
UPDATE: Supreme Court rules in favor or Dreamers; upholds DACA (pending an appeal from the Trump administration).
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≡ Aug. 13, 2017
“Very fine people on both sides.”
—President Donald Trump, in reference to a Neo-Nazi march in Charlottesville that was met by protesters, and during which a protester was killed + dozens injured when one of the nationalists intentionally drove his car into a crowd of them.
» The nationalist and Neo-Nazi marchers chanted things such as “Jews will not replace us” and “blood and soil” (an old Nazi slogan).
» Previous day, Trump also resisted singling out white nationalists (and perpetrators of the violence), instead condemning “violence and bigotry, on many sides”.
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≡ Feb. 7, 2017
Released a list of 78 terrorist attacks committed by Muslims, falsely asserted the media was hiding them:
“All over Europe it’s happening. It’s gotten to a point where it’s not even being reported. And in many cases the very, very dishonest press doesn’t want to report it. They have their reasons, and you understand that.”
» All the attacks on the list received coverage, and those that resulted in casualties received significant and sometimes multi-day coverage.
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≡ Feb. 2017
Diverted counter-terrorism resources away from white supremacist threats to focus solely on ‘Islamist extremism’.
» Administration planned to change the program, “Countering Violent Extremism” (CVE) to “Countering Islamic Extremism” – thus taking pressure off of violent white supremacists groups.
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≡ Jan. 25, 2017
Signed an executive order to withhold federal aid to law enforcement agencies of ‘Sanctuary Cities’ and states.
» Threatened to also block coronavirus relief aid to as well, declaring a willingness to sacrifice U.S. lives to the very real threat of COVID-19, in order to combat the fabricated threat poised by resident immigrants.
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≡ 2017 →
Banned travel from multiple majority-Muslim countries, with notable exceptions for countries the Trump Organization had or was pursuing deals with.
» Claimed it’s “not about religion – this is about terror” – despite zero terrorists since 9/11 having originated from any of the banned countries, and despite frequently referring to it as a Muslim ban himself.
» In fact, a majority of the terrorists who perpetrated 9/11 actually came from countries omitted by the ban – and countries which Trump happens to have business interests in.
» On top of that, of all the people accepted into the U.S. since the Refugee Act of 1980 – not a single on has been implicated in a terrorist attack.
UPDATE: Trump considering expanding travel ban to an additional half dozen Muslim-majority countries.
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≡ July 30, 2016
Said the father of a slain U.S. soldier, Khizr Khan, had no right to criticize him in a speech at the Democratic convention; suggested his wife “wasn’t allowed” to speak because of their Muslim faith.
» Further claimed that he too had “made a lot of sacrifices”, before literally comparing the death of a soldier for his country to his having “had tremendous success”.
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≡ June 2016
Argued the judge presiding over a lawsuit against the now-shuttered, fraudulent Trump University was incapable of impartiality due to his Latino heritage.
» Trump also, with no evidence beyond knowledge of his ethnicity, called the judge a “hater” because he is “Mexican” and Trump is building a southern border wall.
» The judge in question, Judge Gonzalo Curiel, is an Indiana born American citizen and is of Mexican ancestry.
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≡ Feb. 27, 2016
Pretended not to know who David Duke was to avoid publicly disavowing him or white supremacists:
“I don’t know anything about David Duke, OK? I don’t know anything about what you’re even talking about with white supremacy or white supremacists. I know nothing about David Duke. I know nothing about white supremacists.”
» This despite having previously disavowed Duke in 2000, saying at the time that he was “not company I wish to keep“.
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≡ Dec. 7, 2015
Called for an arbitrary ban on all Muslims coming to the U.S. – a ban he later enacted with varying degrees of success.
“Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what the hell is going on.”
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≡ Nov. 22, 2015
Claimed to have witnessed “thousands and thousands” of Muslims cheering as the Twin Towers collapsed on 9/11.
» When Fox News host George Stephanopoulos gave Trump an opportunity to correct his statement, Trump took it even further claiming to have seen it on TV:
“There were people that were cheering on the other side of New Jersey, where you have large Arab populations. They were cheering as the World Trade Center came down. I know it might be not politically correct for you to talk about it, but there were people cheering as that building came down — as those buildings came down. And that tells you something. It was well covered at the time, George. Now, I know they don’t like to talk about it, but it was well covered at the time. There were people over in New Jersey that were watching it, a heavy Arab population, that were cheering as the buildings came down. Not good.”
[There is no record of any such incident being covered at the time. The New York police department has refuted the claims, stating no such celebrations are known to have occurred – let alone “1000’s and 1000’s” as Trump claims.]
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≡ Nov. 22, 2015
Tweeted nakedly racist image showing fake interracial-homicide statistics portraying blacks as the main perpetrators.
So much wrong with this image it’s hard to know where to begin, but – beyond the blatantly racist choice of imagery – a few highlights:
1) The cited source, the “Crime Statistics Bureau”, doesn’t exist.
2) This was posted before the end of 2015 and before any statistics for the year were even released.
3) Actual FBI homicide statistics from 2014 contrast sharply from Trumps purported statistics:
› Blacks killed by whites: 8% (not 2%)
› Whites killed by whites: 82% (not 16%)
› Whites killed by blacks: 15% (not 81%)
› Blacks killed by blacks: 90% (not 97%)
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≡ June 16, 2015
During his announcement that he would be running for U.S. president, Trump claimed:
“When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re sending people that have lots of problems. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”
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≡ 2011 →
Was the #1 proponent of the “birtherism” conspiracy theory.
» Despite repeatedly claiming to have proof that President Obama was born in Kenya, Trump has never provided any, whatsoever.
“He doesn’t have a birth certificate. He may have one, but there’s something on that, maybe religion, may it says he is a Muslim“, and the equally asinine, “Somebody told me – and i have no idea whether this is bad for him or not, but perhaps it would be – that where it says ‘religion,’ it might have ‘Muslim.’”
[Note: U.S. birth certificates do not even include religion.]
» After Obama released his birth-certificate, Trump simply announced:
An ‘extremely credible source’ has called my office and told me that @BarackObama‘s birth certificate is a fraud.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 6, 2012
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≡ 1993
“They don’t look like Indians to me“
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≡ 1991
Fined $200,000 for violating nondiscrimination laws by banning women and black card dealers from certain casino tables.
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≡ 1989
Advocated for the execution of five black and Latino teenagers, aged 14 to 16, who were wrongfully accused of the assault and rape of a white women in Central Park.
» Trump went so far as to spend $85,000 on full-page ads in New York newspapers demanding that the death penalty be reinstated and corrupting the teens image, contributing to their wrongful convictions.
» Even after a murderer and serial rapist confessed with supporting DNA evidence, with the ‘Central Park Five’ receiving full total exoneration and a $41M settlement – Trump doubled down in 2014 op-ed, unironically claiming that “settling doesn’t mean innocence”, and called the settlement “a disgrace”.
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≡ 1980
Hired undocumented Polish workers to construct Trump Tower, cheating them of benefits and pay.
» Trump paid the workers well-below minimum wage; when workers complained about not being paid, Trump is alleged to have threatened them with deportation.
» After a 15-year long labor suit, Trump settled with the workers for $1.4M.
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≡ 1973
Violated the Fair Housing Act in the 1970’s by refusing to rent to black tenants, causing Nixon’s DoJ to file civil rights case against him.
» During a break in the depositions, Trump said to one of the lawyers, “You know, you don’t want to live with them either.”
» Settled with a consent decree agreeing not to discriminate against renters of color, without having to admit to his previous discriminatory practices.
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